Sir John Franklin’s ships departed from Greenhithe port in Great Britain (1845) with the aim of discovering the Northwest Passage in what is now Canada. During their journey, both ships got stuck in ice near King William Island and eventually sank. Over time, searches were held in order to find both wrecks. More recently, under the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper (2006–2015) there was renewed interest regarding what is now referred to as Franklin’s lost expedition. Searches resumed and narratives were formed regarding the importance of this expedition for Canadian identity. This article is embedded in a sociocultural perspective and will examine the role that cultural heritage can play in the geopolitics of the Arctic while highlighting the process of ‘patrimonialization’ that the Franklin’s lost expedition has undergone during Harper’s term in office. Based on discourse analysis, it brings out the main narratives that surrounded the modern searches of Franklin’s wrecks which are related to history, national historic sites, mystery, diversity, importance of Inuit knowledge and information gathering. This article demonstrates that these narratives were intended to form a new Canadian northern identity and to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic.

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The Parc de l’Ukraine (Ukraine Park) located in the neighbourhood of Rosemont, Montreal, acquired its Ukrainian toponym in 1981 and began its replanning in 2017 which consisted of the upgrading of equipment and of the addition of Ukrainian symbols. These symbols were chosen to bring out the Ukrainian identity of the park and of the neighbourhood. During the replanning, relations were established between the Ukrainian community of Montreal and municipal governing bodies who each enunciated discourses in this context. Based on discourse analysis and using the Ukrainian community of Montreal as an example, this article will focus on the role of the host society at a municipal scale, meaning municipal governing bodies, in immigrant identity construction processes. It will look at the interrelationships between ethnic associations and the representatives and professionals of a city, during the replanning of an urban park. This article will demonstrate that the host society (municipal governing bodies) can instrumentalize immigrant communities to promote a specific identity of the city that varies according to various spatiotemporal contexts and more specifically that the neighbourhood of Rosemont has been at the centre of construction processes through which it has acquired a symbolic value as the Ukrainian neighbourhood of Montreal. Such processes have relied on the one hand, on Ukrainian associations, and on the other hand, on Montreal’s governing bodies.

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